What are Interrogative Sentences? (Full explanation and examples)
Interrogative Sentences Definition:
I am sure you are familiar with asking “Questions” in your daily life. Simply speaking, Interrogative sentences are questions, used to ask direct questions and end with a question mark, mainly categorized into “Yes/No” questions or “WH” questions, also sometimes with “alternative interrogatives” or “Tag questions”, depending on what kinds of information you are looking for.
To construct a question, we usually use the “subject-verb inversion” approach, meaning the order of subject and verb are reversed. Let’s take a look at the below examples:
Interrogative Sentences examples:
William, can I share your wifi, please?
Are you ready to leave home?
Did you go to the music festival last week?
Did you take the boxes to the school?
Are you crazy? This is so dangerous!
YES / NO questions:
Let’s start with the simplest type of interrogative sentence – YES or NO Questions, which can be answered with either a “YES” or a “NO”.
Constructing an interrogative sentence is simple, basically, we can use an auxiliary verb or Modal verb followed by a subject and then the main verb. Let’s see some examples:
Do you like Durian?
Have you ever been to Italy?
Were they trying to save the world?
Does it taste good?
Have they confirmed yet?
Should I turn off the light?
Could you please submit your homework?
Is there anybody willing to help?
“WH” Question:
One of the most common types of interrogative sentence is “WH” questions, which are used to ask for a specific purpose with the well-known question words: (WHAT, WHERE, WHO, WHEN, WHY, and HOW). Let’s quickly recap what do these WH words mean:
| What | Asking for information about something, or asking for confirmation |
| Where | Asking for the location |
| Who | Asking for the person |
| When | Asking for the time |
| Why | Asking for the reasons |
| How | Asking for the ways |
“WH” Question examples:
What color is your smartphone?
What do you think about me?
Where do you live?
Where did you leave my wallet?
Who wants to be a fireman in the future?
Who do you like the most in the school?
When will the food arrive?
When are you going to see the doctor?
Why don’t we choose another way round?
Why are you so upset?
How did you know their secret?
How many coins are there in your pocket?
Alternative Question:
Sometimes you are asking questions with multiple choice. Usually, we use the coordinating conjunction “or” to separate the choices. The sentence structures are similar to other interrogative sentences, with a modal verb or auxiliary verb. Let’s see some examples:
Alternative Question examples:
Sir, do you prefer beef or chicken?
Do you like online or offline events?
Do you live in Germany, Switzerland or England?
Will they buy or rent a house?
Which NBA players are your favorite, Steven Curry or LeBron James?
Do you want to go to school or not?
